The Beautiful Monster

A few weeks later

Alyssa huffed as the breath was knocked out of her. She hugged Zoe close to her as they finally reunited in the hallway of the liberal arts building after weeks of not seeing each other.

"You got your hair done!" Alyssa exclaimed once they broke apart. She admired the new red tint to Zoe\'s hair instead of the old purple. She liked this look on Zoe, and her hair was growing out longer to reach her shoulders too.

"Yeah! It was time for a change. I mean, I change my hair every year," Zoe explained with a shrug. She then lifted her eyebrow at Alyssa. "So, how are you and Elias?"

Alyssa smiled as she shifted her backpack straps higher on her shoulders.

"We\'re good. We have class together soon," she told Zoe. She was bummed that she couldn\'t get a class with Zoe this semester, but they swore to try to see each other as much as they could outside of class, whether that was grabbing coffee at the café or doing homework together in the library. They didn\'t want to lose what they built last semester.

"Nice! I have some of the coolest writing classes this semester," Zoe told her.

Alyssa was happy for her. They were all steadily moving up in the world, trying to grow up but not too fast. They had their whole lives ahead of them, and the steps they made now mattered in the future.

"You\'ll have to show me some of your articles," Alyssa told her. She bet that Zoe was a great journalist. She certainly had a way with expressing herself.

"If you show me what creatures you conjure up in your labs," Zoe smirked as she playfully nudged Alyssa with her elbow.

Alyssa laughed as she shook her head at Zoe.

"You act like I\'m a witch or something," she replied. She would be working with organisms, but they weren\'t the kind that would interest Zoe all that much.

She was excited about diving into a deeper scientific curriculum, though. There was so much for her to learn before she graduated.

"More like a mad scientist," Zoe said. She then checked her phone for the time. "Oh, it\'s time to go. I\'ll text you!"

Alyssa was swept into another tight hug before Zoe hurried away to get to her class on time. Luckily, Alyssa\'s history class with Elias was right upstairs, and she suspected that he was already there waiting for her.

She walked up the stairs and down the hall, searching for room 204. It was easy to find since a familiar guy was standing right next to it.

"I see you\'re here bright and early. Trying to be a better student than me?" Alyssa teased him.

Her heart was racing at finally being able to see him again, but she had to play around with him first. They had a competition at their hands.

Elias turned to face her with a smirk.

"Someone is slacking this morning," he pointed out as he tapped his wrist. "You were almost late."

Alyssa laughed and reached forward to hug him tightly. After Christmas, break was alright. She spent a lot of time getting ready for the new semester and new year.

She wrote out some goals, bought some things that she needed, and sent out an email to see if she could keep her on campus job for this semester too.

All in all, she was fairly productive. There were a lot of things she wanted to do this year.

"I missed you. And Zoe. That was why I was almost late," she told him.

Elias kissed her temple before pulling away.

"I missed you too," he said. "How\'s Zoe?"

"She\'s got red hair now," Alyssa replied.

Elias chuckled and nodded. He opened the door to the auditorium for her.

"Sounds like Zoe. I think she had white hair when I first had a class with her," Elias said as he followed Alyssa inside.

"I wish I could\'ve seen that," Alyssa replied as they found a seat toward the top middle of the large auditorium.

It felt like they were back in their psychology class. She settled in beside him. There was only one other person on their row, and he was nearly snoozing in the aisle seat.

Elias pulled out his laptop to take notes on.

"How close are you to your laptop goal?" he asked her.

"Just a few hundred short. I have my eye on a nice one in the campus library," Alyssa told him. Then, she would be able to take expert level notes. She was taking mercy on him right now by just being limited to a pen and paper.

Elias nodded, holding her gaze for a few moments.

Alyssa had a feeling he was thinking about offering her the rest of the money. She didn\'t want him to. He knew that she liked to work hard for her own things. Thankfully, he smiled and looked down at his laptop to type the date on his document. She was relieved. He knew her that well to know not to offer the money.

Of course, it would be nice to suddenly have the few hundred dollars that she needed to get the laptop. Her life would be a lot easier because she wouldn\'t have to rely on the library so much.

However, she would feel so much better knowing that she had worked hard to get that money herself. She had invested in herself. She was so close anyway.

"Have you started on your new year goals yet?" Elias asked her.

Alyssa nodded as a sigh drifted from her. Thinking about and planning her goals was one thing, but actually putting them into action was another thing. The year just started, and she was already struggling with a few.

"Yeah, I\'ve been going to the gym to do some running. I\'ve always wanted to get healthier. You know, healthy body, healthy mind," she said.

It was hard throwing herself into exercising, but she knew that it would become habit eventually. She just had to stick with it.